1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to boats, and particularly to small fresh water sport fishing boats.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Small boats for use by fishermen for fresh water game fishing take many forms. So-called bass boats are usually quite small, carrying from two to four persons and having a relatively shallow draft to permit the boat to be propelled into shallow coves and over submerged treetops and brush located near the surface. It is necessary, of course, to provide adequate room in such boats to accommodate fishing tackle and the like. To retain the desired criteria of shallow draft and adequate room for gear, such boats generally have a relatively broad beam width. It is also generally desirable to have relatively little freeboard in such boats in order to permit the fisherman to easily release snagged lures and retrieve hooked fish.
The shallow draft and low freeboard provide an amplified concern for the stability of the boat in choppy or rough water, and also of stably accommodating the frequent movements of the fishermen toward one side of the boat or the other. Capsizing and swamping does occur from time to time. In this event, the boat will generally having flotation characteristics such that it will not sink, but will remain afloat with at least some part of the boat projecting above the surface of the water.
One attempt to achieve stability in a two-man small sport boat of this type is shown in U.S. Design Pat. No. 229,719 where a twin-hulled, twin-keeled fiber glass boat is illustrated.
A broad-beamed boat having a wide and long stabilizing channel extending from bow to stern of the boat on the lower side of the hull is illustrated in U.S. Design Pat. No. 206,503.
Efforts to stabilize and improve the swamp flotation characteristics of boats by selective placement of buoyant flotation material between nested double hulls are represented by the boats shown in Blackmore U.S. Pat. No. 2,866,985; Waring U.S. Pat. No. 2,381,631 and Moore et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,831,212.